Welcome to my blog. I home school Jenson and Wren, who are 6 and 4 years old respectively. We live in Cheltenham in England with my husband, Simon, and all manner of animals including chickens, rabbits, a dog and a handful of fish. This is an online diary. It's a place for me to keep a record of the highs and lows of our home ed experience.

What a wonderful day Wren and I spent together today. After her new found interest in photography, I thought I'd take her somewhere where the blooms were even bigger and better!

The Painswick Rococo Gardens seemed the perfect destination. We arrived sharp at 10am and had to wait half an hour or so for the gardens to open. When they did the chap very kindly noted how long we had been waiting so invited us to join the front of the ice cream queue, much to Wren's satisfaction!!

While waiting, Wren had been busy taking photos of some of the geraniums on the tables!! I had explained to her that the little black square that she sees through the view finder needed to be on the object she wanted to take a picture of to guarantee it being in focus. She seemed to get the hang of what I meant quite quickly.

This giant leaf also grabbed her attention.

We were given a little trail to follow, at the end of which Wren would win a prize. This consumed the next hour or so, turning Wren's attention away from photography and towards the playground!

On our walk we discovered this giant fungus, bigger than anything Wren and I had ever seen!

Some fun on the swing followed...

...as did some rope work.

Wren really lends herself to black and whites. It's funny how some children do more so than others.

The last clue we had to find was at the Eagle House. Wren had to count the number of window arches, (10).

Wren won her prize, (a cute little pencil with a sheep shaped rubber on the end) and we enjoyed a lovely lunch together. So organised was I, we also had to buy a birthday present for one of her new Oakridge friends, whose party we were going to that afternoon. Here she is writing in the card.

After lunch our attention turned towards photography again. This is one of Wren's photos.

So is this one...

...and this one.

In fact all of the photos that follow are ones that Wren took. She is such a natural. I love how they are all in focus and that she was able to pick out the subject she wanted to focus on.

This is one of mine that I sneaked in!!!

All that photography was just too much like hard work!!

After strolling through the kitchen gardens we made our way down to the lake for some shade.

I lay down on the grass and Wren laid on top of me. I bounced her on my knees and she squealed with delight.